My terror as axe thugs struck, by the royals’ fashion favourite Amanda
Pair jailed over £30,000 Rolex moped mugging
ROYAL designer Amanda Wakeley last night described the moment two moped muggers held an axe to her throat to steal her £30,000 Rolex.
The 57-year-old said the ordeal of being targeted as she walked to her Porsche was ‘one of the most frightening experiences in my life’.
Connor Murphy, 26, pounced with an accomplice after earlier letting down the tyres of the car to make Miss Wakeley stop to investigate. He threatened her with the axe and screamed ‘give me your watch’ as the other man dragged her to the ground in a headlock.
The pair then wrenched her rose gold Rolex Daytona – which she had worn since the death of her father – from her wrist and fled on a scooter.
Miss Wakeley told the Daily Mail: ‘It was one of the most frightening experiences in my life to find a man charging at me with an axe and then me knocked to the ground but I am just grateful that I am fine and know that in this time of Covid there are so many other people who have far worse things to worry about.’
She added: ‘The watch had a special value for me as I bought it after my father died, in his memory.’
The designer, whose signature evening dresses are favourites of the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Sussex, was left with neck pain after the attack in Chelsea Har
‘Targeted and terrifying’
bour in London on November 13 last year, London’s Isleworth Crown Court heard. Murphy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery while Richard Walsh, 29, of Ladbroke grove, West London, admitted he helped plan the crime by researching the value of the watch online.
A third man, who had grabbed Miss Wakeley by the throat, has not been caught. Police would like to speak to Mark Toth, 35, from west London, in connection with the robbery. The watch has not been recovered.
time CCTV shows footage Miss taken Wakeley at the walking to her Porsche 997 Carrera 4S before pausing when she realises one of the tyres is flat. Murphy then
rides on to the pavement on a
scooter wielding the axe while his accomplice grabs the fashion designer. Miss Wakeley’s tyres had been repeatedly deflated over the preceding days, indicating the pre-planned nature of the attack, prosecutor Diana Wilson told the court. The pair were caught after police traced a BMW driven to the scene and saw Walsh driving it on the same day as the robbery.
Andrew Caird, from the
Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘This was a targeted and terrifying robbery in broad daylight. One defendant was wielding an axe at
the victim and the other put
her into a headlock before
snatching the Rolex watch
off her and fleeing. The prosecution case included strong CCTV and telephone evidence which included images of the same Rolex watch that was stolen from the victim, on Walsh’s phone.’ Witnesses who rushed to the designer’s aid said she was left quivering on the ground after the attack. Lucy Daniels, defending Murphy, said he planned to use the stolen watch to settle a drugs debt and had been told specifically to target Miss Wakeley. Murphy was jailed for six years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and having an offensive weapon, and Walsh was given four years and nine months after admitting his role in the robbery.
Judge Simon Davis, who sentenced the duo on Thursday, described the heist as a ‘carefully planned and organised robbery’.
Miss Wakeley added: ‘I am so grateful to the police for all they did in finding these men who mugged and stalked me. The fact that two of them are behind bars in good news. I also sincerely hope they find and jail the third attacker.’